TWI574666B - Thin planar biological sensor - Google Patents

Description

Thin planar biomedical sensor

The present invention relates to a biomedical sensor; and more particularly to a thin planar biomedical sensor using a flexible conductive material of biocompatible silicone glass as a sensing electrode.

According to the biomedical signal measurement system, it is a medical instrument that is popular today. The traditional electroencephalography (EEG) measurement uses a wet electrode, because the wet electrode needs to be combined in use. The conductive adhesive can act, causing discomfort such as swelling and swelling of the subject, and its electrical conductivity will decay with time and cannot be used for a long time.

The dry electrode applied to the biomedical signal measurement has more advantages and convenience than the conventional wet electrode. However, at present, almost all dry electrodes use a microstructure process, such as a micro-electromechanical process (MEMS), a carbon-nano-tube process, and the like. However, these microstructures are not only weak in material, but also invasive, and they are invasive measurement systems, and are therefore accompanied by problems such as damage to the skin of the subject. Although the prior art has been proposed in recent years to replace the wet electrode with a dry electrode, it is inconvenient to use, and the dry electrode has not been able to overcome the problem of the tested portion such as hair so far, and thus has not been widely used until now. .

Furthermore, due to the related research in the field of biomedicine, it has been heavily Vision, the improvement and application of biomedical signal measuring instruments are also constantly developing. It is expected to reduce the size of the instrument and achieve long-term and timely measurement. In the past, the bulky and complicated equipment was out of date, but due to There have been no more effective and cost-effective inventions, so the development of many studies has continued to be limited.

Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned lack of improvement, the present inventors have felt that the above-mentioned deficiencies can be improved, and based on years of experience in this field, carefully observed and studied, and with the use of academics, The invention is designed to effectively improve the above-mentioned defects, and discloses a new electrode different from the conventional wet electrode and the microstructured dry electrode as a sensor for measuring the medical signal, and the specific structure and implementation manner thereof will be detailed. Said below.

In order to solve the problems existing in the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a thin planar biomedical sensor which is not only capable of improving the shortcomings of the old electrode but also enabling immediate and long-term biometric measurement. Possibly, and the signal measured with such a thin planar biomedical sensor can be more stable without decaying over time.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a thin planar biomedical sensor which uses a biocompatible silicone silver glass conductive material to produce a new flexible electrode, combined with a process of injection molding mixing. The flexible electrode has a relatively large elastic space and provides good measurement characteristics and close fit when the human body moves.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a thin planar biomedical sensor which can be used without applying a conductive adhesive, has a simple use method, and can improve the many defects caused by the conventional electrode. In addition, the thin planar biomedical sensor provided by the invention can be used not only to sense brain wave signals, but also to sense electrocardiogram signals, muscle signals, forehead signals, The biomedical signals such as eye movement signals and bite signals are obviously more widely used.

Therefore, the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention comprises at least one flexible electrode, at least one conductive thin plate, a buffer layer and a circuit substrate. Wherein, the flexible electrode is used for contacting the skin of a subject to measure the biomedical signal, and the flexible electrode is made of a conductive material of tantalum silver glass, wherein the composition ratio of the silicone to the silver glass is approximately It is 7:3. The conductive thin plate is electrically coupled to the flexible electrode and disposed under the flexible electrode. The buffer layer is disposed under the conductive thin plate such that the conductive thin plate is sandwiched between the buffer layer and the flexible electrode. The circuit substrate is disposed under the buffer layer and electrically coupled to the conductive thin plate and the flexible electrode, thereby receiving the measured biomedical signal.

Wherein, according to an embodiment of the present invention, silver glass further contains silver and cerium oxide, and the composition ratio of silver to cerium oxide is 1:9. Furthermore, the circuit substrate disclosed in the present invention can be further selected as a flexible printed circuit board. Therefore, the flexible electrode, the flexible printed circuit board and the buffer layer disclosed in the present invention have excellent deformation characteristics, which not only can make the overall sensor elastic, but can be used not only when the subject wears As the unevenness of the measured portion is deformed, it is possible to maintain relatively good measurement characteristics while the human body is moving.

In addition, the biomedical signal measured by the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention can be further connected to the circuit substrate through a wire to the signal transceiver. Here, the signal transceiver is The biomedical signal can be passed to a remote end for analysis. Therefore, according to the technical content disclosed in the present invention, the flexible electrode can quickly measure the biomedical signal after contacting the skin, and the electrode can be more closely attached due to the elastic relationship of the overall sensor. And the skin surface to achieve the best measurement results.

Moreover, the structure and process used in the present invention are substantially larger than those of the prior art. Simplification can not only effectively reduce the cost of subsequent mass production, but also make the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention one of the mainstream tools for future medical measurement. The purpose, technical contents, features and effects achieved by the present invention will be more readily understood by the detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

1‧‧‧Small flat biomedical sensor

10‧‧‧Flexible electrode

12‧‧‧Electrical sheet

14‧‧‧buffer layer

16‧‧‧ circuit board

18‧‧‧ Output埠

20‧‧‧Flexible belt

22‧‧‧Wire

30‧‧‧Signal Transceiver

1 is a top view of a thin planar biomedical sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a thin planar biomedical sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a front elevational view of a thin planar biomedical sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of the reverse side of a thin planar biomedical sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view showing the actual measurement of a thin planar biomedical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view showing the state of use according to the actual measurement of the thin planar biomedical sensor shown in Fig. 5.

Figure 7 is a graph showing the results of a forehead signal measurement using a conventional wet electrode.

Figure 8 is a graph showing the result data of the forehead signal measurement using the thin planar biomedical sensor of the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a graph showing the result of bare signal measurement using the electrode of the conductive material of the tantalum silver glass of the embodiment of the present invention.

The above description of the present invention is intended to be illustrative and illustrative of the spirit and principles of the present invention, and the scope of the patent application of the present invention is further extended. explanation of. The features, implementations, and utilities of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, which are respectively a top view and a cross-sectional view of a thin planar biomedical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the figure. The planar biomedical sensor 1 includes at least one flexible electrode 10, at least one conductive thin plate 12, a buffer layer 14, and a circuit substrate 16. The flexible electrode 10 is made of a enamel silver glass material which is bendable, electrically conductive, and does not cause allergy. The composition ratio of the silicone rubber to the silver glass in the silicone silver glass material is 7:3. . Further, the silver glass further contains silver and cerium oxide, and the composition ratio of silver to cerium oxide is 1:9. Since the silver glass itself has excellent conductivity and a unique elastic material after being mixed with the silicone rubber, the integral electrode can have a considerable flexibility and flexibility space. Therefore, when the electrode disclosed in the present invention is placed on the surface of the skin of the subject and then fixed with an external mechanism, it can be used to measure the biomedical signal. Moreover, through such a highly conductive silicone glass material, the flexible electrode disclosed in the present invention can be used not only to measure brain wave signals, electrocardiogram signals, muscle signals, etc., but also because of conductivity. For good reasons, a relatively small signal can be detected, so that the human body's frontal signal, eye movement signal or toothing signal can also be measured by the biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention.

A conductive plate 12 is electrically coupled to the flexible electrode 10 and disposed under the flexible electrode 10 . In order to form an electrical connection with the flexible electrode 10, the conductive thin plate 12 used in the present invention may be, for example, a metal substrate. It should be noted that, in order to achieve the purpose of performing independent signal analysis for brain wave measurement, the number of flexible electrodes 10 provided in the present invention may be, for example, plural, for example, 16, 32 or 64, Perform multi-channel measurement. In the case of such multi-channel measurement, the number of the conductive sheets 12 may be selected to be one or more. In other words, according to the disclosure of the present invention, the relationship between the number of the flexible electrodes 10 and the conductive thin plate 12 may be one-to-one or a many-to-one correspondence. The second embodiment of the present invention is merely an embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

Furthermore, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 2, the buffer layer 14 is disposed under the conductive thin plate 12 such that the conductive thin plate 12 can be interposed between the flexible electrode 10 and the buffer layer 14. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the material of the buffer layer 14 can be, for example, a soft silicone material, and covers the flexible electrode 10 and the conductive thin plate 12. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the soft material of the silicone substrate is matched with the elasticity of the flexible electrode 10, the electrode used in the present invention can be more closely adhered to the skin surface of the subject. To make the overall measurement more accurate. At the same time, due to the soft material of the silicone, it can increase the comfort of the subject during the sensing.

The circuit board 16 is disposed below the buffer layer 14 and electrically coupled to the conductive thin plate 12 and the flexible electrode 10 described above. Thereby, when the flexible electrode 10 is placed on the part to be tested (for example, the head) of the subject, and the biomedical signal (for example, brain wave signal) is measured, the measured medical signal can be measured. It is transmitted to the circuit substrate 16 and received by the circuit substrate 16, thereby forming a thin planar biomedical sensor as taught by the present invention. 3 and 4 are respectively a front view and a reverse side view of a thin planar sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the circuit substrate 16 is integrated with a plurality of trace designs to match the above-mentioned silicone The silver glass sensing electrodes are electrically connected, and an output port 18 is disposed on one side of the substrate, and after being integrally worn, the wires or signal wires are connected to receive and transmit the measured biomedical signals. According to an embodiment of the present invention, in order to increase the comfort of the subject when wearing, the circuit substrate 16 selected by the present invention may be, for example, a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC). Therefore, in summary, the flexible electrode, the flexible circuit board (FBC) and the silicone buffer layer disclosed in the present invention have excellent flexibility, which not only makes the overall sensor flexible, but also suffers from When the tester wears, it can not only deform along with the unevenness of the skin surface, but also maintains a fairly good measurement characteristic when the human body moves.

Please refer to FIG. 5, which is a schematic diagram of actual measurement of a thin planar biomedical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the thin planar biomedical sensor 1 disclosed in the present invention can be disposed on an elastic band 20, whereby when measuring, as shown in FIG. 6, the subject can The elastic band 20 is directly worn and is disposed around the head of the subject through the elastic band 20. At this time, the flexible electrode 10 located on the inner side thereof can be more closely attached to the measured portion of the subject to increase the accuracy in sensing. In addition, through this headband measurement method, it can provide good measurement characteristics even when the human body moves, without causing errors.

Thereafter, the raw medical signal measured by the thin planar biomedical sensor 1 taught by the present invention can be further transmitted to a signal transceiver 30 through the wire 22. Thereby, the signal transceiver 30 can receive the biomedical signal of the subject, and can further transmit the biomedical signal to the remote end for analysis by means of a wireless manner. According to an embodiment of the invention, the signal exchange between the signal transceiver 30 and the remote end can be transmitted, for example, via wireless means such as Wifi, WiMax, or Bluetooth (BT). Furthermore, in order to achieve the purpose of eliminating electromagnetic interference, the signal transceiver 30 disclosed in the present invention can be provided with a casing and an antistatic and anti-electromagnetic wave material, thereby maintaining the better quality and accuracy of signal transmission and reception. In order to successfully eliminate the interference of electromagnetic waves. According to the embodiment of the present invention, since the outer casing is a casing made of antistatic and electromagnetic wave materials, and can be fabricated by an integral injection molding process, the electrode and the guide can be directly used. The thin sheet is placed in the mold at the same time and can be completely coated after molding. In addition, in order to increase the tightness of the components in the sensor, the thin planar medical sensor 1 designed by the present invention may further comprise a conductive adhesive for bonding the flexible electrode 10, The conductive thin plate 12, the buffer layer 14, and the circuit substrate 16 allow the elements to be more effectively bonded together, increasing the strength of the structure. On the other hand, it can also increase its conductivity and improve the accuracy of measurement.

Therefore, in summary, the conventional EEG measurement, due to the use of wet electrodes, often causes the user to be allergic due to the need for conductive glue. In addition, under long-term wear, its conductivity will lose its conductive properties as the conductive paste dries. As for the dry electrode of the microelectromechanical process, there is a problem that the skin is invaded and the structure is weak. Therefore, compared with the prior art, the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention not only utilizes the advantages of silica gel silver glass, but also has the advantages of better conductivity, biocompatibility, no contact with skin, and immediate measurement. Moreover, it combines the comfort and convenience of use in light, thin, bendable, etc., and solves many of the defects of the Xisangsheng sensory electrode in an invisible manner. It is obvious that the invention is a well-designed and effectively improved defect.

Hereinafter, the present invention further tests the biomedical sensing electrode and compares it with a conventional wet electrode signal, wherein the conventional wet electrode and the thin planar biomedical sensor proposed by the present invention output both. The signals are shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8, respectively. As can be seen from the two figures, the signals of the forehead are almost the same, and there is not much difference. The correlation coefficient is calculated via MATLAB software. The result is about 0.9200, which means that the correlation is also very high. It is confirmed that the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention does have the measurement effect and can provide almost the same signal as the wet electrode. In addition, the ninth figure is an electrode made of the conductive material of the yttrium silver glass disclosed by the present invention. The data of the bare test results, through the results of this experiment, it can be seen that either the conductive impedance of the electrode itself or the contact impedance value in contact with the skin is relatively low (average about 1.3 ohms), which is very suitable as a human physiological signal. The measurement is used.

In conclusion, in summary, the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention is an effective and unprecedented electrode for biometric measurement. According to the technical idea of the present invention, the flexible electrode used in the present invention not only does not need to use conductive adhesive, but also avoids the problems caused by the conductive adhesive, and can be widely used for measuring the medical signal in human activities. It overcomes the fact that daily life should be an activity and cannot measure the lack of biomedical signals. In addition, the size of the flexible electrode used in the present invention is not particularly limited, and can be designed differently according to the applied measurement, and has greater flexibility and practicability in application.

Furthermore, the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention is a disposable design, which can directly remove oil stains by using soapy water, and is disinfected by using hydrogen peroxide, and has a better advantage in cost control. In view of the above, the thin planar biomedical sensor disclosed in the present invention can be used for long-term use by the user, and has the advantages of simple use and real-time monitoring, and is obviously a future medical measurement. And one of the most powerful mainstream tools in research.

The embodiments described above are merely illustrative of the technical spirit and the features of the present invention, and the objects of the present invention can be understood by those skilled in the art, and the scope of the present invention cannot be limited thereto. That is, the equivalent variations or modifications made by the spirit of the present invention should still be included in the scope of the present invention.

1‧‧‧Small flat biomedical sensor

10‧‧‧Flexible electrode

12‧‧‧Electrical sheet

14‧‧‧buffer layer

16‧‧‧ circuit board

Claims (11)

A thin planar biomedical sensor adapted to measure a biomedical signal of a subject, the thin planar biomedical sensor comprising: at least one flexible electrode for contacting the skin of the subject Measuring the biomedical signal, the flexible electrode is made of a conductive material of tantalum silver glass, wherein the conductive material of the silicone silver glass comprises silicone and silver glass, and the composition ratio of the silicone to the silver glass is 7:3. The silver glass comprises silver and cerium oxide, and the composition ratio of the silver to the cerium oxide is 1:9; at least one conductive thin plate electrically coupled to the flexible electrode and disposed on the flexible electrode a buffer layer disposed under the conductive thin plate such that the conductive thin plate is sandwiched between the buffer layer and the flexible electrode; and a circuit substrate disposed under the buffer layer, wherein the circuit substrate is electrically The conductive sheet and the flexible electrode are coupled to receive the biomedical signal. A thin planar biomedical sensor according to claim 1, wherein the conductive sheet is a metal substrate. The thin planar biomedical sensor of claim 1, wherein the buffer layer is a soft silicone material and covers the flexible electrode and the conductive sheet. The thin-type planar biomedical sensor of claim 1, further comprising a signal transceiver, wherein the signal transceiver is electrically coupled to the circuit substrate via a wire to receive the biomedical signal, and the The biomedical signal was transmitted to a remote end for analysis. The thin planar biomedical sensor of claim 4, wherein the signal transceiver and the remote end transmit signals in a wireless manner. The thin-type planar biomedical sensor according to claim 4, wherein a periphery of the signal transceiver is further provided with a casing, and the material of the casing is an antistatic and anti-electromagnetic wave material. A thin planar biomedical sensor according to claim 6, wherein the outer casing is integrally injection molded. A thin planar biomedical sensor according to claim 1, wherein the circuit substrate is a flexible printed circuit board. The thin-type planar biomedical sensor according to claim 1, wherein the biomedical signal is at least one of a brain wave signal, an electrocardiogram signal, a muscle motion signal, a forehead signal, an eye movement signal, and a bite signal. . The thin-type planar biomedical sensor according to claim 1 can be further disposed on an elastic band to be disposed on the periphery of the head of the subject through the elastic band, so that the flexible electrode is further Closely attached to the test site of the subject. The thin-type planar biomedical sensor according to claim 1, wherein the number of the flexible electrodes is plural, and the number of the conductive sheets electrically coupled to the flexible electrodes may be one. Or more than one.